Challenges in teaching English to Young Learners: a Global Perspective

The UAE. 
Of the 43 responses by UAE teachers to the open questiondifferentiation attracted 
most attention (7 comments), with five comments blaming the students for being ‘weak’ and 
only two suggesting, as in the South Korea data, that differences in level was the problem.

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Challenges in teaching English to young learners 
26 
Lack of time was the second most common challenge (5 comments) with the focus being on 
the mismatch between time available the amount of work required: 
Trying to teach a full English course to students who are also learning Arabic and 
Islamic Studies each day, taking a big chunk of my teaching time out. 
Motivation was also a problem with four comments. Other issues included 
discipline (3), resources (3), large classes (2), speaking (2), grammar (2), writing (2) and 
parents (2).
The school visited was in a rural part of the Emirates and was a ‘model school’, 
defined by the teacher thus: 
It’s a state school but the government, or our education council, is investigating more 
in these schools, which means they are well equipped technology-wise, facilities-
wise.
The school, then, was not typical of schools in the region : there were between 15 and 17 
children in a class, teachers were qualified (and in some cases experienced) and it was well- 
resourced.
When asked what he liked least about teaching young learners, the teacher’s response 
chimed with responses to the open question: 
Motivation. It’s motivation. The worst thing that a teacher could experience is when 
he has no motivated students. This would kill him, especially if he is enthusiastic 
about his subject. And unfortunately this is the problem in the UEA schools. 

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Challenges in teaching English to young learners 
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In this teacher’s opinion, lack of motivation was due to Emirati children believing they did 
not need to learn English, an answer which was also given twice in response to the open 
question. 
The teacher also discussed the importance of strong classroom management. His 
skills in this area were revealed in the observation. For example, in one class, when the 
students became over-excited in an activity that involved moving around the class, the 
teacher raised a ‘STOP’ sign, which caused the children to sit down immediately and put 
their heads on their hands. He also had a number of strategies for setting up pair and group 
work activities. Although he did not mention differentiation explicitly, it was apparent in the 
observation that meeting individual students’ needs was a central tenet of his teaching 
approach as children were given different tasks according to level. 
Of particular interest was the way in which he involved children in the organisation of 
the lesson, from running the PowerPoint presentation to taking the register. As he said: 
Students have small attention span and the more activities you do inside the classroom 
will make them more involved in their lesson. I do a lot of hands-on activities. I 
believe in multisensory activities. 
While challenges in the UAE mirror the global picture to some extent, motivation and 
differentiation are particular local challenges which require teachers to be skilled in planning 
and classroom management.
Overall these findings suggest that the challenges teachers face in teaching English to 
young learners are both myriad and, in many cases, common. In the next section, we discuss 
how these challenges might be met.